I have a few casino questions. Any help would be great.

Do you gamble? What do you play?

What do you think is the best and worst casino games to play? Are your odds better at any of them? What about roulette?

What about the slot machines? Is it really random? Does it matter how you play them or whether it is a $5.00 or a 25 cent machine?

Do I gamble? Yes, but not in casinos.On horses,if I am at the racecourse and on soccer games if I am at the match; it adds to the interest and I flatter myself that I can predict the result, using my vast skill and experience ( the bookmaker, driving off afterwards in his new Ferrari, knows that too ).

Casinos? What you should be looking for is a game where your skill plays a part. That rules out slots and roulette for a start. Blackjack or poker are obvious candidates therefore for a gambler; poker is not really a casino game at all, as it is nearly all skill.

Slots? Slot machines are programmed nowadays. You are not taking a truly random chance when you put your money in; a computer inside the machine has already decided the result.The chance is only whether you happen to have hit a bit of its cycle where it is paying out ! Even in days gone by the machines, though mechanical, could be set up to be more or less generous to the player.

Roulette. Sitting here I am just a few miles from Monte Carlo and every time I go there, every two weeks or so, I think of this story, and so should you !! . When I was about 14 my father and I were sitting on the afterdeck of his boat in the harbour one evening. He said " Look up at Monte Carlo above us on the cliff. How do you think the Hotel de Paris, the Opera House and all the rest were paid for? Speculators building with borrowed money? Rich men from Europe investing ? No. It was all built on losing odds of 36 to 1. Now, just imagine. How rich do you think you'd get if, every day of your life, you took odds of it being thirty six to one against you winning anything? Not very rich, eh? Well, those were the odds with the roulette wheel; the House collects on the ball landing on the one zero but not on the other 36. Now, look up there again. Every one of those old buildings, with all the marble and gilt and luxury was built on just those odds. And to this day, as a result, nobody born here, a Monegasque, pays any taxes at all ! So the lesson is: If you must gamble don't go into a casino. Go and buy one !"

Of course, as he suggested,with odds like that, the House must be failing to win on a lot of spins of the wheel, and so it is even possible to 'break the bank at Monte Carlo'. One man did it twice (and the Casino had to borrow money to pay him out each time) but, over time, there is only one winner . (My father didn't gamble; but then he was the one of us with the yacht in Monaco harbour! )

By the way, on an American roulette wheel the House has twice the chance because there is a zero and a double zero where they collect.

"Casinos? What you should be looking for is a game where your skill plays a part. That rules out slots and roulette for a start...."

Well, slots, anyway.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0595142362/104-1347200-7965534?v=glance

I can unreservedly recommend this book even if you never intend to enter a casino.